All Koreans Should Pool Efforts for Sake of the Nation

Thanks to the bold decisions and will of the leaders of the north and south and vigorous efforts made by all Koreans, the seeds of reconciliation and peace sowed in the spring at Panmunjom are bearing rich fruit in this autumn.

It is a great success to be specially recorded in the history of the Korean nation that the "September Pyongyang Joint Declaration" was published and the nonaggression pact-like "military agreement to implement Panmunjom declaration" was adopted as an annexation of the joint declaration.

Now the international community is absolutely supporting the struggle of the Koreans for achieving durable peace and prosperity of the Korean peninsula and even hostile countries are welcoming it.

But there are forces seeking inter-Korean confrontation and division among the Koreans. This is just a disgrace to the Korean nation.

The "Liberal Korea Party" is persistent in rejecting the ratification of the Panmunjom declaration at the "National Assembly" although its validity and vitality are being fully displayed in practice.

When the whole world is hailing the "September Pyongyang Joint Declaration", only the LPK is terming it "a declaration of little substance" and a "humiliating document in which the south was unilaterally disarmed by the north".

Such reckless act is enraging all the Koreans as it has something in common with the treacherous acts committed by the past conservative regimes which slandered the June 15 joint declaration and the October 4 declaration as "pro-communist documents befitting enemy" for no ground and disturbed their implementation.

The past distressing history, in which valuable agreements and results common to the nation were misused for dirty greed for power and party stratagem, should never be repeated.

The meeting for national reunification, held in Pyongyang on October 5 to mark the 11th anniversary of the publication of the October 4 declaration, proved again the will of the Koreans to carry forward, preserve and implement the north-south joint declarations in their entirety.

People from various walks of life in south Korea are strongly demanding the NA ratification of the Panmunjom declaration, a manifestation of their fixed will to strenuously develop the inter-Korean relations, not repeating the historical lesson caused by the anti-reunification forces.

Inevitable is the doom of the conservative forces going against the new history of national reconciliation and unity being written by the north and south together.

To realize the historic cause for peace of the Korean peninsula and the future of the Korean nation, all the Koreans should pool their efforts, instead of seeking party interests.

When they implement the Panmunjom declaration and the "September Pyongyang Joint Declaration" by their concerted efforts, a new era of independent reunification, peace and prosperity will surely come.